INSPIRATION FROM WOMEN OF FAITH: TUBMAN AND TRUTH

Hear my teaching, O my people;
incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

I will open my mouth in a parable;
I will declare the mysteries of ancient times.

That which we have heard and known,
and what our forefathers have told us,
we will not hide from their children.

We will recount to generations to come
the praiseworthy deeds and the power of the Lord,
and the wonderful works he has done.

[PSALM 78:1-4 BCP PSALTER]

I’ve been somewhat negligent in honoring several commemorations in recent weeks. There are some coming up soon that are meaningful to me, and that has prompted me to begin a series of recognitions today.

On March 10, the Episcopal Church commemorates Harriet Ross Tubman, Social Reformer. The Lutheran calendar recognizes Tubman along with Sojourner Truth on this day. Truth is commemorated on July 20 in Lesser Feasts and Fasts, the Episcopal collection of commemorations.

Both women were born into slavery. However, Harriet Tubman escaped when she was about twenty-four, and then began to help others escape.

Working with the Quakers, she made at least nineteen trips back to Maryland between 1851 and 1861, freeing over three hundred people by leading them into Canada. She was so successful that $40,000 was offered for her capture.[1]

Sojourner Truth, whose birth name was Isabella Baumfree, was freed after slavery was abolished in the state of New York in 1828, and discerned a call to be a preacher. Taking the name Sojourner Truth, she set out on an evangelistic journey, where people found her testimony to be deeply moving. She is best remembered for a speech she gave during a women’s rights convention in Akron, Ohio, now known as “Ain’t I a Woman.”[2]

I point out these women because Sunday, March 8 was International Women’s Day. Although it is not a church commemoration, it is a global day to celebrate the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women.

On a national level, in 1987, Congress declared March as National Women’s History Month.

The brief sketch on Tubman in Lesser Feasts mentions that her favorite Bible story was about Moses, who led the Israelites out of slavery.

In many ways, Tubman lived into that role by the many people she rescued from slavery in the South.

In addition, she joined the Union Army during the Civil War, serving as cook and nurse, caring for both Confederate and Union soldiers. She also served as a spy and a scout. She led three hundred Black troops on a raid that freed over 750 slaves, making her the first American woman to lead troops into military action.[3]

There are forces in our day that want to suppress the stories of women like Tubman and Truth. Our current federal administration is working overtime to rewrite history to paint a vastly different picture of this nation’s past. This cannot be allowed.

There are days when it’s hard to see God’s presence in the world. Between our news and newsmakers, we have to ask, what’s happened to the world God intended?

The good news is that God does not sit idly by!

God could not let the children of Israel continue to live under the oppression of Pharaoh. God called Moses, and Aaron, and Miriam to lead their people out of captivity.

And so it was with Harriet Tubman. She listened to God, and did something.

In the same manner, God gives us opportunities every day to do something, to help others, to act on God’s voice.

Undoubtedly, it’s hard work. It could come at great cost – even our life. 

However, note where Tubman and Truth found their inspiration – the Bible!

Scripture is not only a collection of history, teachings, and poetry. It is also a book of dreams: God’s dreams and Humanity’s dreams.

Sometimes the dreams come together; at other times, divine and human dreams conflict with each other.

The grace in it all is that no matter how distorted and diminishing some dreams of humankind, God keeps on dreaming. God’s deliberate, creative, and relentless imagining of new possibilities is, in part, what makes the Good Book so good!

Because God dreams, we are inspired to live divine visions with deeper confidence and joy and to risk dreaming new dreams of our own.

The Dreamer-God never stops dreaming and breathing new life into creation.

And the Spirit of God rested on Harrie Tubman and Sojourner Truth, inspiring them to be instruments of God and become instrumental in the struggle for freedom, dignity, and equality in society and in the world.

Let us pray:
O God, whose Spirit guides us into all truth and makes us free: Strengthen and sustain us as you did your servants Harriet Ross Tubman and Sojourner Truth. Give us vision and courage to stand against oppression and injustice and all that works against the glorious liberty to which you call all your children; through Jesus Christ our Savior, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
(Lesser Feasts and Fasts, edited p. 131)

---

[1]  The Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of The Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, Lesser Feasts and Fasts 2024 (New York: Church Publishing Incorporated, 2024) p. 130

[2]  Ibid, p. 318

[3]  Ibid, p. 130

Featured Image: Harriet Tubman (far left) with family and neighbors, circa 1887, at her home in Auburn, NY. (Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division, The New York Public Library.)